Proactively “From the Sea”; leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

20 comments:

pk
said...

i once stood watch with a warrent electronics type who was organizing a tour on an ice breaker. he had been on one for several years before and liked it because of the rocking and rolling. according to him the instalation of the anti roll tanks was a terrible thing.

I'm certain that there is a GMT for this situation. America's Global Force for Good cannot stand by while a weak-kneed sailor is tormented for not having the iron constitution required by his seafaring comrades. Surely this is a case of either sexual harassment or race-based hazing! Away the Diversity Flying Squad!

pitching was never fun... but rolling was great, especially after climbing into your rack.

Funny thing... I always felt far more exhausted at the end of the day when using those active fin stabilizers than when steaming with them secured. Something about the un-natural and unpredictable roll a little, awkward pause, then roll the other way, then snap back and do a partial roll in opposite direction. Made us all look like drunks staggering down the passageways, due to the strange jerking that resulted from fin stablizers.

It was never predicable rolling with those anti roll fins enabled. Much more relaxing ( and comfortable) just doing the full (natural) rolls which varied of course, depending upon the seas; but whether or not it was predicable 8-10 degrees rolls, or more or less, you always goy used to it. And rudder roll stabilization systems were never effective, so don't buy into that version of anti-roll techniques, either.

<p>let's throw (more) money at _________ ( insert Large Defense Contractor here), to build and program and test and then backfit surface warships (at greatly inflated costs) with some sort of ROLL STABILIZATION fins.... or even worse RUDDER ROLL STABILIZATION !</p><p> </p><p>Just like the monsters that don't work onboard LCS-1. ( which cannot be used at even medium speeds much less at high LCS dream speeds).

I remember walking through the mess decks on the Coontz one day during some particularly heavy weather. A young e-2 was hanging over the garbage can looking especially green. A crusty old e-6 walked by and said "Hey, kid, if you stand there like that, you're going to throw up". The E-2 immediately lost his breakfast (and probably last night's supper as well). I thought it was hilarious.

I once knew a SH1 Filippino (great guy) who was the ship's barber, he got sick when the bowline was thrown off the bollard, no kidding. The ship was hardly moving and he was in the head. After that he was fine, even in rough weather. He would brace his feet against the bulkhead and the sink vanity, and if you could stay in the chair, you got a haircut.

My most memorable episode of sea sickness involved one of my JOs during a particularly nasty spell in the Med. One night he staggered over to my bridge chair and asked if I'd mind relieving him as OOD for a couple of minutes so he could use the head. Humanitarian that I am, I told him that if he was sick he should call his relief and which point he started babbling and collapsed on the MK78 Position Indicator (which was used for, among other things, authorizing the launch of the ASROC RTDC). We passed the word for the corpsman and the oncoming OOD and the QM dutifully recorded "The OOD has passed out. The Captain has the Deck" in the log. It turned out that he'd been hiding his sea-sickness for a couple of days and was severely dehydrated. He later went on to command two ships and an amphibious squadron.

Awesome story! I admire that kind of tenacity.....foolish in not telling anyone sooner, but tenacious all the same. He didn't want to shirk his duty. Wish we had more of that. On USS Last Ship, we ran into heavy weather in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle for 3 days. The frickin wardroom waved the Chaplain card, so we were port and starboard on OOD for 2 days. In-sane. Meanwhile, the enlisted men (and I do mean men, all male ship) refused to shirk their duty and would have to be physically ordered below due to their spending too much time in the barf bag and not enough time at their post. Most of these guys would get up, blow chunks, and return to their station. Whenever I tried to offer them an out, they would refuse. "No sir, I'm good to go." Damn motivating. Was never prouder of my watch teams. Especially considering the fact that we were barely making 1 knot good and there was a crowded traffic picture, they were incredible.

Awesome story! I admire that kind of tenacity.....foolish in not telling anyone sooner, but tenacious all the same. He didn't want to shirk his duty. Wish we had more of that. On USS Last Ship, we ran into heavy weather in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle for 3 days. The frickin wardroom waved the Chaplain card, so we were port and starboard on OOD for 2 days. In-sane. Meanwhile, the enlisted men (and I do mean men, all male ship) refused to shirk their duty and would have to be physically ordered below due to their spending too much time in the barf bag and not enough time at their post. Most of these guys would get up, blow chunks, and return to their station. Whenever I tried to offer them an out, they would refuse. "No sir, I'm good to go." Damn motivating. Was never prouder of my watch teams. Especially considering the fact that we were barely making 1 knot good and there was a crowded traffic picture, they were incredible.

AOD, Good story too. This officer was foolish only in that he hadn't eaten or had anything to drink for a day and a half despite repeated bouts of vomiting. At least he wasn't like one of my fellow JOs on USS FIRST SHIP who thought standing watch in CIC was better while sea sick than being up on the Bridge in the fresh air and with a view of the horizon.

uss onlyship got a draft of about 80 boots from sandiego on friday afternoon. put to sea for hawaii 0900 next morning. some of them started manning the rail when the tugs came along side. by the time the 1mc passed the word for shifting colors there were about 100 men on the port side rail doing their worst (the ship had been moored starboard side to and we can't have mummies & daddys & wifies splattered you know, of course the westpack widows were long gone). 40 minutes after shifting colors the 50 man working party was called (they only got 25 or so) to man the firehoses to clean weatherdecks, that lasted until we got to pearl.

i saw gold crow 1C bo'suns sick. the serving line at the entrance to the mess decks had to be firehosed the third day. a chief threatened a 2C with a sleeve stripping session and the 2c ripped the crow off, handed it to him and said he would be on the fantail if anyone needed him to sign papers.

saturday rolled around we tied up at ford island, we all recovered, handed back gouged out eyeballs and went drinking on hotel street.

I walked around w/ a trash bag in my coveralls pocket for the first three days. After that I was G2G, but I do know I have NEVER felt worse than being sea sick. The worst was safety diver in 15' seas on a little Zodiac. I finally just threw all of my crap overboard and geared up at 25' to get under the wave action, as I dry heaved in my reg. The other two divers had to do a deep diver to retrieve our gear.

The new first mate on the vessel was a Bar Harbor fisherman and he said he didn't like Dramomine as it made his puke taste funny. I was glad I wasn't the only one that got sick. I think I finally stopped getting so sick when I started going out on the 34' HSL survey boats we used. Ginger pills help, BTW.